Saturday, January 30, 2010

Chicken & Dumplings

I've been gone for a min now Im back with the jump off...

LOL I have def been gone for a min... school has resumed and I am teaching everyday as well as working full time!! Somebody say a prayer for me bc 4 hours of sleep each night is ROUGH!!!

Anywho... I come bearing a new post something that will keep you warm and stick to your ribs on a cold winter's day!

Chicken & Dumplings or as I was raised Chicken Pastry

you will begin this dish by choosing the chicken pieces of your choice. (although i love breast meat the thigh meat has more flavor)

4-6 chicken thighs
2 -3 cans chicken broth
water
salt
pepper
frozen pastry strips, egg noodles, or dumplings

boil the chicken thighs in the chicken broth and water until the meat falls off the bone.  remove all bones & skin. (the water will evaporate so you may want to have an extra can of chicken broth to add back to the pot once the chicken is done to flavor your pastry)
add pastry or noodles to meat & stock cook until
season to taste

enjoy with some hot cornbread!

Enjoy!!!!!

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year all! I know it's been a few weeks since I've posted anything but just like the rest of America I've been trying to get through the holidays. 

It's finally over and I can say I had a wonderful holiday with loved ones as I hope you did as well.

First post of the New Year...

I'm going to repost my Fod for the Soul posts from the http://www.1081creations.com/ blog.
There are also going to be some newbies as well!

Enjoy!


Rice Broccoli & Cheese Casserole


1 Onion Diced
3 Tablespoons Butter
1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup
½ Cup of Milk
1 10oz. package of Frozen Broccoli
½ lb. Velveeta Cheese (cut in cubes)
1 ½ Cup of Cooked Rice

Sauté onion in butter, then combine with other ingredients. In a greased 1 ½ quart casserole dish bake @ 350 for 30 minutes
 
 
Christine’s Beef & Vegetable Soup

1 pound of Stew Beef Meat (beef tips)
1 can of whole kernel corn
2 cans of mixed vegetables
1 can of baby lima beans
2 cans of stewed tomatoes (garlic, basil, & oregano by DelMonte or Dole)
¼ of a small cabbage cut up


*(feel free to add any canned or frozen veggies you like but remember frozen veggies may take longer to cook than canned)


Boil beef for about 1 hour on med/high heat until tender. Season beef during this time with salt, pepper, and garlic. Turn down heat and add canned veggies, tomatoes, and cabbage and allow to cook until cabbage is done. Once cabbage is done turn off heat and allow to simmer over remaining heat. Serve while hot!
 

Browni Bites
 
Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup self rising flour

*if you like you can add 1/2 to 1 cup of pecans, walnuts, or cashews.


DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray an 8 inch square pan or mini muffin pan with Bakers Joy or Crisco with flour.

2. In a large saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in 1/3 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup flour, salt, and baking powder. Spread batter into prepared pan.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not overcook.
 
 
Chew Bread

1 stick butter
1 box brown sugar
2 eggs
2 c. self-rising flour
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. chopped nuts (optional but pecans work best)

Melt butter and add sugar. Remove from heat. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add flour, one cup at a time. Add vanilla and nuts. Bake in 13x9x2 * inch greased pan at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

Use a toothpick to test, when it comes out clean its done.

*if you want thicker bars you can use an 8x8 baking dish

 
Blueberry Pound Cake

1 box butter flavored yellow cake mix
1 8oz package cream cheese
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 cups blueberries (add 2 Tblsp. flour)

Preheat oven to 325. Lightly grease and flour a 10" tube pan. Combine cake mix, cream cheese, oil and eggs. Beat until smooth. Gently fold lin blueberries. Spoon into cake pan and bake for about 1 hour.

Cream Cheese Icing

One 8 ounce package of cream cheese, softened
1/4 c. butter, softened
2 tsp. vanilla
1 lb. pkg. powdered sugar

Beat together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Blend in vanilla. Gradually beat together powdered sugar and mixture.

*if icing is too stiff to drizzle on the cake then add a little milk while mixing.

Infinity’s Lemon Half-Pound Cake

1-1/2 c self rising flour
3 eggs
1 c granulated sugar
2 T butter, softened
1 t vanilla extract
½ box Jell-O lemon pudding
1/3 c lemon juice*
1/2 c vegetable oil

Lemon Icing

1 c plus 1 T powdered sugar
2 T whole milk
1/2 t lemon juice*

(also add a little lemon zest by taking a steak knife and scraping the peel of the lemon)

t : teaspoon
T: tablespoon
*Use the juice from 1 fresh lemon if you have it.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Use an electric mixer to blend together eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla, lemon jell-o & lemon juice in a large bowl. Add flour ½ cup at a time & blend until smooth. Add oil & mix well.

Pour ingredients into a well-greased 9x5-inch loaf pan. (or a tube bundt pan) Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick stuck into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Make the lemon icing by combining ingredients in a small bowl with electric
mixer on low speed. When the lemon loaf is cool, remove it from the pan &
frost the top with the lemon icing. When the icing has set up, slice the loaf into eight 1-inch-thick slices.

Makes 8 slices.

*************************************************************************
 
Lumpia (filipino egg rolls)
 
Ingredients:

•1 pound ground beef
•3/4 cup shredded carrots
•1/2 cup chopped onions
•1 teaspoon or 2 cloves minced garlic
•3/4 teaspoon pepper
•2 teaspoons season salt
•1 package of 50 Lumpia Wrappers or 2 packages of 25 individually separated Lumpia Wrappers
•1-1 1/2 cup(s) vegetable or olive oil
•Small bowl of water

First, you'll want to brown your ground beef with your chopped onions, shredded carrots, garlic, pepper, and season salt, over medium high heat in a skillet or frying pan. (I recommend using a frying pan that is at-least 1 1/2" to 2" deep. I use the same pan to fry the lumpia in once it is rolled and finished.) When the meat is nice and brown drain the excess grease and set aside.

Now, here comes the fun part. Separate the Lumpia wrappers. In all my years of making Lumpia I have not found any easy way to separate this darn things but I will tell you how I do it; maybe you can come up with an easy way. The wrappers need to be defrosted if they are frozen. You'll also want to have a plate to set them on as well as a damp kitchen towel to cover them, we don't want our wrappers to dry out! Open the package and take out the stack of Lumpia wrappers, start at the edges and gently start peeling the edges upward, continue around and round until you eventually get to the center and loosen the individual sheet off of the stack. Now, place the loose sheet on your plate under the damp towel or cloth. And basically repeat until the stack or package is done. Sounds easy right? It's not! It will take you a few times of separating before you get the hang of it, probably midway between the stack.

We are now ready to assemble our Lumpia Rolls.

•Take 1 of the Lumpia wrappers and spoon 1-2 tablespoons of your ground beef mixture into a line near the edge on the Lumpia wrapper.
•Fold Lumpia wrapper over the line of meat you just spooned.
•Now, you will begin to roll the meat into a tube. Stop rolling when you are to the middle of the wrapper.
•Fold the right and left sides of the lumpia wrapper to the center
•Continue to roll to the end of the wrapper
•Dip your fingers in the small bowl of water and lightly moisten the exposed edge of the lumpia wrapper
•Fold wrapper edge onto itself pressing it down gently. So it seems to glue itself down.
•Place to the side for now and repeat, repeat, repeat! Until there isn't anymore wrappers or meat left.

All that's left to do now is heat your oil in your frying pan on medium high heat. You only need about 1/2" of oil across the bottom of the pan. Once the oil is hot place about 4-5 Lumpia across the pan and lightly brown each side of the lumpia. About 3-5 minutes each side. It will also vary with your stove. So if it seems like they are burning quickly turn your burner down. They should be a nice golden brown color. Now you want to let them cool and drain some of the excess grease off of them. My mother and I have always used a colander, feel free just to set them on paper towels or napkins. Repeat until you've made desired amount or they are all done. You can store extras(before they are fried in oil!) in the freezer to fry later on. That's another great benefit to this recipe, you can make 50 at a time and only fry 10 one day and saved the others for when you feel like it.

Voila! You've just made Lumpia! It's okay if they're not all perfect or the same size. Over time you will learn how to make them all uniform. Trust me it took me years to master the art of Lumpia rolling.

You can use any type of dipping sauce you prefer. My choice is pain old ketchup. I know some people who like to use the store bought sweet and sour sauce and duck sauce. Some people like them plain. They are great either way. But I strongly recommend trying them with ketchup. They're a perfect pair!

*taken from http://hubpages.com/hub/Lumpia-Filipino-Egg-Rolls